Sad Tales About Last Days Of John Wheeler; Found Dead In Del. : The Two-WayIn the last couple days before his body was found at a landfill in Newark, Del., the former Pentagon aide was "a man disoriented and so disheveled that he was mistaken for a homeless person," The News Journal of Wilmington, Del., writes.

This image provided by the Newark Police Department shows a man identified by police as 66-year-old John Wheeler III, whose body was found at a landfill in Wilmington, Del. on New Year's Eve.
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This image provided by the Newark Police Department shows a man identified by police as 66-year-old John Wheeler III, whose body was found at a landfill in Wilmington, Del. on New Year's Eve.

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"Turned up at the New Castle County Courthouse parking garage on King Street in Wilmington, erratically searching for his car, according to employees and surveillance video made public Tuesday.

"An employee at the garage said she tried to help Wheeler, who was carrying his right shoe in his left hand and said someone had stolen his briefcase. The 66-year-old Wheeler was blocks away from where his car was parked in a garage on MLK Boulevard near the train station. Wilmington Parking Authority officials said he was a monthly customer."

Wheeler, a West Point graduate who went on to work in the Reagan and both Bush administrations, was instrumental in the effort to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. The circumstances of his death, which police are treating as a homicide, have caught national attention. His body was apparently put in a dumpster in Newark before being taken to the landfill.

"Whoever dumped the body of a prominent national defense consultant into a garbage bin in a bustling college town risked being detected, either by witnesses or surveillance cameras, with some of the containers in well-lit parking lots, near restaurants and stores."

Update at 3:25 p.m. ET. The Associated Press has posted this surveillance video showing Wheeler at the parking garage when he was looking for his car: